While living in North Dakota and working as the equipment and facilities guy for a nascent meadery-in-development, I got tired of working at a plastic folding table as field-expedient desk. I happened across some hardwood hickory flooring on deep sale at the local home goods store and after some quick math, I bought a box for a song and started to form up a plan.
The top consists of 3/4″ thick flooring boards glued to a sheet of 1/2″ plywood with routered-in butcher block ends. The plywood was great for ease of assembly, but over the years the hickory flooring has breathed and shrunk while the plywood has stayed quite stable. A few minor cracks have opened in the surface as a result, but nothing terrible.
The frame is made largely of scraps I pulled out of the scrap pile from another project. It worked out aesthetically using a mixture of 2″ and 1.5″ square tube. I designed it to attach to the desk top by means of bolt plates, which keeps the screw holes from fatiguing and failing during repeated assembly/disassembly cycles. The rest of the frame disassembles into smaller sections that pack nearly flat to make moving easier. I also later added a cable tray to the rear lip of the desk to help manage my current work setup, which involves 3 monitors, a couple speakers, lamps and a bunch of USB cables. Keeping them contained and tucked out of the way has been a very worthwhile upgrade.
Matthew J Erickson 